Produce Bags

Hello:
What a way to wake up.  It is impossible for me to NOT grab my camera and try to capture the dawn.

I have been working my way through the N. M. P. B. (No More Plastic Bags) E-Book by Kate Vanover.  You might remember that I test knitted one of the bag patterns for her earlier this Fall.

While knitting with cotton is not always a comfortable thing, it is not that bad for my hands, and I am fairly used to working with non-stretchy yarns. (see just about every afghan I have made as well as all of the washcloths I made last year!)

I like the colors and look for the first bag, Kate gave me the yarn to use, but I didn't want to buy more yarn (STASH DOWN!) so I decided to see if I had anything that would work in all of the crochet thread in my stash.  Last year a friend of a friend's mom stopped crocheting, and she was a huge doily maker.  The friend dropped off a plastic blanket bag full of cotton crochet thread in mostly white, but some off white.  I used some of it to make Christmas snowflakes this summer.  But the giant bulk of it sits down in the cave.  So I dug through the bag and found some size 3 Aunt Lydia Fashion Crochet Mercerized Cotton Thread in "Bridal White" which is a nice creamy color.

This crochet thread works perfectly for the bags.  I've finished a second bag

The first bag I made used the Knit Knot Mesh body pattern and the Bunny Ears Tie handle.  The second bag used the Buttonhole Handles ... handle and Diagonal Madeira Lace for the body.  I made the first bag using the smaller opening instructions because it was a test knit and I needed to get it done quickly.  For the rest of the bags I am using the larger opening instructions just to make bigger bags.  I also made this bag longer so it would hold celery comfortably.  And, you can see that it does.

I am on the third bag now.  For this one I am trying the Easy Drawstring Brim, option 1, and Fisherman's Net for the body.  This body pattern is super easy to memorize so this is a good project for me to bring to school to knit on my breaks.

I have one more brim to try out, and one more mesh pattern.  Then, I will use them all at the grocery and try to see if I prefer one over the other.  I have to admit that I enjoyed knitting all of the brims so far, and while some of the patterns are more mindless (therefore more portable), I like the way all of the patterns look.  I might just have to keep rotating through them to keep myself from getting bored with any one pattern.  I mean there are lots of variations possible here.  I have been knitting the "In Pattern" bottoms, and haven't even tried the stockinette bottoms.  So that is yet another possible way to make these.

Obviously, there will be more on this project in future posts.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with mercerized cotton.